Those are good points on the utility of Nitrox I wasn’t aware of. I think solo diving is a good course of study. From my experience if you don’t already have someone in your family or a close friend that is already into diving or you can get them into it you’ll be traveling solo on pure diving trips. And when you travel solo you will dive solo. Everyone else I was on a dive boat with were either couples or entire families. When you get instabuddied with these types they aren’t your buddy. Once you’re underwater they group together. And you’re not part of their clique so they usually ignore you. The divemaster will help you if they see a problem but their attention is split amongst the group. And there’s usually a problem person that they have to focus on that absorbs their attention. You don’t have a buddy in a situation like that. You’re really on a solo dive. If you travel without bringing someone with you to dive with study solo diving because it will happen. You might as well be prepared for it.